The London Steve Reich Ensemble continues its recordings of music by its namesake,
minimalist composer. After a first recording on CPO, which I reviewed in 2008
(review),
the group is now with EMI Classics. It’s not easy to find out whether there
have been any other recordings in the interim; this group has one of the worst
and most useless websites I’ve seen in a very long time.

This CD contains three works, two of them in versions that have not previously
been recorded.

Triple Quartet is a work that was commissioned by the Kronos
Quartet, and composed in 1998. The “triple” part suggests that there are three
string quartets, yet it was composed to be performed by one live string quartet
and two others on tape. The present recording is by three actual string quartets,
and is a very jaunty version, with excellent overall sound and meshing of
the different instruments. The performance is not radically different from
that recorded by the Kronos Quartet, but the sound, with three actual string
quartets, is a bit better than that original recording.

The second work, Piano Counterpoint, is an arrangement for solo
piano, by Vincent Corver, of Reich’s seminal 1973 work Six Pianos.
In addition to being a reduction of the original work, it is much shorter;
just shy of 15 minutes, compared to over 22 minutes for the original recording.
Part of the difference in timing is the reduction of parts of the work, but
the tempo is also much faster. On a single piano, this work comes off more
as a series of variations played over a rhythmic base, and the phase shifting
of the original is lost. Nevertheless, this stands up on its own as a very
interesting, ebullient work for piano, one that, given the tempo, must be
quite difficult to perform. In a comment from Steve Reich in the liner-notes,
he says that the “piece … leaps up with energy and expression.” This is certainly
a new way of looking at Six Pianos, and one that is quite successful.

The final work, Different Trains, is one of Reich’s works that
uses voices on tape together with instruments (a string quartet), which at
times mimic the voices. I confess to not really appreciating the works Reich
has composed using this “speech melody” technique - The Cave, City
Life and the recent WTC 9/11. I find that the voices are interesting
the first time, but after subsequent listenings, become annoying. In addition,
there is little room for flexibility in the musicians’ performance, because
of the need to stick to the tempo of the taped voices. The only options performers
have are in dynamics, and in a work like this - again, in part because of
the prominence of the voices - even that is limited. If you have a recording
of Different Trains, you certainly don’t need this one.

All in all, this is an excellent CD for those unfamiliar with Steve Reich’s
works. The combination of the two works for string quartet(s) and the piano
piece makes for an interesting program. The first two works are unique recordings,
if you’re a Steve Reich collector, but Different Trains is more or
less what is already on record.